With the price of gold topping $900 an ounce and that of platinum approaching $1,800, an economy that’s seen better days, and a growing segment of consumers preferring high-tech to high-end, what is a manufacturer to do with its next line to entice buyers without breaking the bank?
The obvious strategy is to take the less-is-more approach when it comes to precious metals. But to achieve the strength and durability needed for filigree and other lacey designs, such pieces usually need to be die struck and assembled—which means manufacturers must invest thousands of dollars in dies to make similarly durable production pieces. Or does it?
According to Victor Joyner of HD Pattern Co. in Mill Valley, California, there is an alternative: Use a combination of new technology, time-saving techniques, and alloys of sufficient hardness—plus travel back in time 100 years for designs of timeless elegance.
Joyner sees a return to the thin jewelry styles of the Edwardian Era as a major opportunity for American jewelry manufacturers today. “This jewelry is as elegant as it gets,” says Joyner. “From a design standpoint, we have a mountain of non-copyrighted or out-of-copyright material to get inspired by. What are we waiting for?”
“Considering how high metals prices are, tapping the early 1900s for design inspiration is a smart move,” agrees Gail Brett Levine, GG, executive director of the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers in Rego Park, New York. “You have the evocativeness of looking back to a past era where there was such elegance, and you don’t have a heavy metal piece that will price-point you out of the market.”
And there may be no better time than the present to look to the past. “The heavy jewel-encrusted pieces fraught with diamonds and big gumballs of gemstones that we’ve been seeing will be old news,” says Levine. “People are moving away from that. Look at all the movie stars—they are wearing the lighter styles, chandelier and shoulder dusters. This is the new direction.”
Yet the key is to produce these timeless designs by using modern technology—which is exactly what Joyner and a group of collaborators, with help from Levine, set out to do. They took Edwardian-inspired pieces fro. concept to completion. The following account of their process is a case study for how past and present can converge into an opportunity for the future.